Fluorescent strip light fixtures or industrial strip fixtures employing a diffuse white painted reflector emit light in almost every direction, including along the ceiling and toward the walls of a room being illuminated, in addition to toward the floor or work area intended to be illuminated. While such fixtures have been successfully used for years to provide light in a desired area, substantial amounts of light and energy are wasted by such fixtures due to the amount of light they direct toward areas, such as walls and/or windows and along the ceiling plane, where the light is not needed; the only significant benefit thereof being that persons outside of the area being illuminated will see light directed toward them through windows and/or reflected of walls, and will thereby know that the lights are turned on, which to potential customers of a store will indicate that the store is probably open.
To conserve energy, energy efficient light fixtures are now being used that include specular (i.e., mirror like and polished) reflectors that reflect light directly toward the area in which illumination is desired. Since such fixtures do not direct light along the ceiling and toward the walls and windows of a room, viewers outside the area being illuminated cannot readily ascertain whether the lights are turned on. This can cause a problem, for example, when such energy efficient lights are used in stores that remain open throughout the night. Business can be lost when potential customers, believing the store is closed because they can not tell that its lights are on, drive past the store without attempting to enter it.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,821 addresses this problem by providing illuminators for the opposite edges of a reflector that are illuminated when a fluorescent lamp within the reflector is emitting light, thereby indicating that the lamp is turned on. Generally, the edge illuminators of this invention each comprises a generally transparent or translucent illuminator body, and illuminator-mounting means adapted for mounting the illuminator body along the edges of the reflector so that the edge illuminators refract a portion of the light originating from the fluorescent bulb at a sharp angle with respect to the light reflected generally downwardly by the reflector to indicate to viewers along the sharp angle that the light is turned on. While such edge illuminators are effective, they add cost to the fixtures and interfere with placing the bottom edges of the fixtures flush with the surface of the ceiling, should that be desired.